An autism spectrum disorder (ASD) study in rhesus macaque using whole exome sequencing

Little is known about the heritability of social behaviors and their associations with naturally-occurring genetic variants among macaques housed in complex social groups. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the heritability of social phenotypes in a juvenile cohort of rhesus monkeys from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (YNPRC) breeding colony and to identify naturally occurring genetic variants segregating in these animals and their associations with social phenotypes of relevance to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We collected behavioral observations on more than 200 juvenile rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) housed in species-typical social groups, and surveyed these animals using whole exome sequencing (WES) using the Rhexome v2 capture reagent (Caskey et al. Immunogenetics, 2019; PMID: 31321455).